


since we've grown, we long for concrete things

by genresavvy



Category: Frankenstein MD
Genre: F/M, Soul Mate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-18 01:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2331017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genresavvy/pseuds/genresavvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria Frankenstein sets out to scientifically disprove soul mates, while Eli Lavenza grows even more certain that she's his.<br/>[ frankenstein md victoria/eli soul mate au ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Eli has always believed in soul mates, deep down. Maybe it's just the idea of there being someone out there you're meant to be with forever that appeals to him. Maybe that just appeals to him because of the ugly divorce his parents went through when he was young. Victoria rattled off those reasons and plenty more than he can't remember when he admitted that he believed in it once, and about five minutes in when she started searching for a scientific journal to explain how it didn't make sense, he simply agreed with her, and decided to never bring it up again.

Besides, it's not like his life is centered around it or anything. He's got plenty of stuff to do, from being a Big Brother to one of the kids at the Y, to playing soccer, to taking part in student government (though, admittedly, the last one is more because a few of his friends on the soccer team are a part of it, and he plays the role of keeping the peace more than he does any actually student governing.)

He dates a couple of girls over the years, and while he does care about them, the relationships never really pan out. It's not that he's a player or anything, each lasts for enough time to be considered 'serious', but he never feels as invested as he really should in them. He feels guilty about that, but never really talks about it, because he doesn't want to be the guy who has 'commitment issues' and he just knows that people will bring up his parents divorce, and he hates it when people do that. It makes him feel less like a person and more like a statistic, just another kid from a broken home who doesn't believe in love deep down, when that's not the case in the slightest.

Sometimes he thinks that maybe Victoria is his soul mate. After all, they've always been close, close enough that he sometimes feels like he can read her mind, and there was that time that she twisted her ankle in gym class and he knew that she'd gotten hurt even though he was on a field trip two towns away.

But, hey, what does he know?

* * *

 

There was never a point in Victoria's life where she believed in soul mates, regardless of how much culture focused on the idea, and all of the supposed cases that were so lauded and discussed by just about everyone. Even at a young age, before she really voice her objections to it or was knowledgeable enough in science to come up with an explanation, she was wary of it. People always cited an uncle or a former classmate or a co-worker who had it happen to them, but it was never anyone closer than that, anyone you could actually meet.

On top of that, there were many cases of supposed soul mates which, int he long run turned out to be frauds. One case in particular that stuck with her was a pair of celebrities who claimed to be soul mates, seemed to pass all tests, and lived in the limelight for several years, until one broke down and confessed it was all a publicity stunt before admitting herself into rehab. There were a few other cases of the sort, each met with differing levels of belief and media attention. Some people fell for it every time, despite the fact that they always turned out to be fake, something which very quickly went from 'minor annoyance' to 'enormous pet peeve' as the years went by.

When she was offered the opportunity to release a series of educational of videos in a partnership with PBS, she was thrilled, but after several meeting where backers kept bringing up the subject of soul mates whenever she started putting forward her ideas for research, it became clear they were more interested in covering a popular subject that would get lots of views than something that would actually be worth putting money and effort into. After something like two weeks of fighting with backers and the college (they kept threatening to find someone else, but Victoria knew they would never) she finally agreed.

Not because of any kind of change of heart towards the whole concept or anything, mind you. While she would much rather prefer to spend her time research growing skin tissue or building more durable bones, there is a part of her angry enough at the misinformation and the lack of scientific theory that makes her decide to agree with them. When they finally get to signing the contracts, she smiles and quietly plans to prove the damn theory wrong once and for all.


	2. Chapter 2

Eli starts dating Rory partly because she's a beautiful, funny and all around wonderful girl, and partly because she's completely ambivalent towards all the soul mate stuff.

When it comes up in conversation, she shrugs, "A friend of mine in high school always talked about how it happened to her uncle, but I never met the guy, and she could've been lying for attention. It could be real. It probably isn't, though."

And considering the fact that the girl he's grown fairly certain over the years is his soul mate doesn't believe in them and dating a few girls who firmly believed in it, it's kind of nice to go out with someone who's got a more neutral point of view on the whole subject.

Sure, there's some things they don't have in common, like enjoying clubbing and led zepplin and the horror movies she keeps renting and -- well, okay, so it's more like a lot they don't have in common, but, hey, that's never affected his relationship with Victoria, so it's not like differences mean it can't work.

. . .not that he's dated Victoria or anything.

Anyways, things are going great with Rory. Past the initial discussion about soul mates, they haven't really talked about it, so he hasn't had to tell her that he's fairly certain that he's one of the few people who have one, or that it's his oldest and closest friend. He feels kind of guilty about that, though, but, really, how exactly are you supposed to bring something like that up?

There has to be a right way to do that, but whatever it is, he doesn't know, so he kind of just. . .puts it out of his mind.

Heck, he even goes out with her to a club a few time. He mostly feels awkward every time, but she's having a good time, so that's a good thing, right?

And then one night out at a club with her and her friends, one of her friends (he can never remember how to pronounce her name correctly, so he's kind of given up on trying to say it at all) brings up the whole soul mate thing, and of course everyone starts talking about it, and he can't help but to panic a little internally. But, the topic was bound to come up eventually, right?

One of her friends says something about how she's always wondered what it would feel like, and maybe it's because he's feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the loud music and probably drank his drink too quickly or something, but without thinking he says, "It seems perfectly normal until you find out it's not."

There's a very long pause then, and they all turn to look at them, Rory with a look of barely contained shock on her face, and he knows with sudden clarity that he's messed this up so badly.

The girl who started the conversation finally says, "Wait, so you have a soul mate?", her eyes flicking over to Rory, and this is bad. This is so bad.

"Uh. Yeah."

Rory looks over at him a measured look of calm on her face, "You didn't mentioned that before, Eli."

He just barely catches himself from saying 'it's not that important' and is so glad, because it's a lie, and not even a lie that she would want to hear. After a long, uncomfortable pause, he settles for, "It's not really an easy thing to bring up." and punctuates it with a laugh that comes out a lot more awkward than he intended.

A few of her friends laugh politely, but he notices them glaring at him the rest of the night, and he's always known that her friends weren't very fond of him in general, but he's pretty sure there's no chance of them liking him at all now.


	3. Chapter 3

"All right. The first thing we need to do for this is find a pair of supposed soul mates who are willing to go through a series of tests and appear in a web series."

Iggy winced, "Can you please not call them 'supposed soul mates' when we meet with the backers again, Victoria? I don't think they respond well to that."

"I'm not going to pretend that I believe in it, Iggy."

"I'm not saying you have to! Just. . .be a little more. . .tactful in the way you word things." She raised an eyebrow, and he sighed before adding, "Plus when you prove it wrong you probably have full rights to shove it in their faces."

Victoria nodded, jotting down a few notes in a notebook, "I intend to. Now, who can we possibly ask to do this?"

"How about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?"

She paused, before looking up from the notebook at him, "I don't believe they've made a claim to be soul mates?"

"They don't have to!" Iggy waited for a moment before shaking his head, "It was a joke."

Victoria stared for a moment before shaking her head, rolling her eyes as she looked book to her notebook, "Anyways, I've got a list of people we could possibly get to be on the show, but I know for a fact that most are very private, which makes sense, considering the media attention they've gotten." She chewed on the end of her pen thoughtfully.

"What about you and Eli?" Iggy offered.

"Me and -- that doesn't make any sense, Iggy. For one, neither of us even believe in soul mates, much less that we're each other's soul mates. Why would you even suggest that?"

"Well, I mean, you said you two have always been close, and sometimes when he's around it's like you two can read each other's minds or something. Plus, wasn't there that one time he knew you twisted your ankle even though he was in, like, another state or something?"

She snorted, "Because we've known each other since we were five, Iggy, and the ankle thing was just a coincidence. Correlation does not imply causation -- you know that. That doesn't exactly mean that we have some magical soul mate bound that isn't actually a thing that's real."

"Fine, fine. Geez, it was just a suggestion." Pausing for a moment, he scratched the back of his head, "Oh. Wait. He's dating Rory, right? Yeah, it would be a bad idea. Wouldn't want to make things uncomfortable for them or anything."

"Why? We're proving this whole theory wrong, so it's not like any supposed 'soul mate bond' we have would be proved right or anything. There's no threat to their relationship."

"Well, uh. I think Rory might find it a little uncomfortable to have her boyfriend being tested to see if his closest, oldest friend is his soul mate. Plus Eli. . ." He trailed off.

"'Plus Eli' what?"

"Nothing. It's nothing."

"Iggy." She shot him a look, "Just say it.

"Okay, okay, geez." He paused for a moment, toying with his shirt sleeve, "I don't know, sometimes I get the vibe that Eli might believe in that stuff. Soul mates, I mean."

"First of all, Eli doesn't believe in soul mates. That's ridiculous. Second off, I'm not sure a 'vibe' is exactly a trustworthy source." She paused, "Whatever it is."

"It's like. . .intuition."

Victoria looked at him, and then shook her head before starting to walk away, "I'm going to start placing some calls with people on the list I've made."


	4. Chapter 4

There was really no way for things not to be awkward after Eli accidentally admitted the whole soul mate thing at the worst possible moment. It's been a few days, and they haven't really talked about it, but he gets the feeling that Rory's waiting to figure out exactly how she wants to start the conversation. Which he kind of appreciates. A part of him hopes that maybe they can just. . .not talk about it, but he knows that that's not going to happen.

Finally, one day when they're hanging out at his place, she turns to him and says, "It's Victoria, isn't it?"

He blinked, "What?"

"Victoria. She's the one you think is your soul mate."

"I -- it's -- no, of course not." He winced at his own answer. He wasn't even sure why he tried to lie, he'd never been particularly good at it.

"C'mon Eli, really?"

There was a bit of a pause, then, "Uh. Yeah. She's. . .I do. Think that."

It wasn't an easy thing to admit out loud. Sure, he'd grown to believe it more and more as time had gone on, and was fairly certain that it was a fact at this point, but it was one of those internal beliefs. One of those things that he thought, but didn't often say out loud because he knew that someone would probably make fun of him for it, or bring up the fact that Victoria so adamantly didn't believe in soul mates, which was something he knew very well but wasn't particularly fond of being reminded of.

Rory frowned, said something about how she was glad that he was honest with her, and the rest of the night was painfully awkward until she finally made up some reason to leave, and the moment she walked out, he got the sudden feeling that their relationship wasn't going to last much longer.

He brushes away the thought, though, because it doesn't have to mean anything, right? After all, he's wrong about a lot of things, couldn't he be wrong about this, too? Victoria has all sorts of explanations for the supposed soul mates and what it probably actually is that he's never understood. It didn't mean that they had to break up.

And, for a few days, he almost believed it. Things almost seemed to go back to normal. It's pretty obvious that her friends kind of hate him now, a fact that makes him feel uncomfortable since he'd never done well with people outright hating him, but on some level it's never seemed like they really liked him. They've just sort of. . .accepted the fact that Rory's dating him. Now it's obvious it was dumb to think it, but he always thought they would all get along as time went on. But now it looks like it's just gonna be a lot of her friends probably telling her to break up with him.

Besides that, everything's fine.

Then, well, it's not. She wants to go out to the club one night, when he's made plans with Mr. Frankenstein to work on a puzzle, so he declines, and then she decides to stay in with him. Everything seems fine at first, but when Mr. Frankenstein arrives, she's obviously not happy. Which doesn't make sense, because he's always had puzzle nights with Victoria's dad?

Even when he tried to apologize for it, he really didn't understand what he was apologizing for, so it only made her more upset, even though she insisted she was fine. Obviously, it wasn't, but what could he do?

A day or two later, they're talking on the phone, and they get into an argument, and the next thing he knows, they're breaking up.

It's only after hanging up the phone that he remembers that they both offered to help out Victoria the next day.


	5. Chapter 5

"Eli and Rory should be arriving any minute now." Victoria stated as she organized the messages they were going to go though that day -- they'd both emailed as many pairs of supposed soul mates as they could find emails for, which turned out to be quite a lot, which led there to be a lot of responses to sort through, hence the need for Eli and Rory's help.

"Wait? Both of them?" Iggy replied, "Didn't they, uh. . .break up yesterday? At least, that's what Rory's twitter feed seems to imply."

"Yes, they did."

". . .don't you think that could make this whole volunteering to help us -- well, you -- thing a little, uh. uncomfortable?"

"They both assured me that it would be fine." She paused for a moment, then turned to look at him, "Wait, what do you mean, 'you'? Why me in particular?"

"Well, she kind of went on a bit of a twitter rant about soul mates and people not letting go of things and, well, I connected the dots."

"And how exactly do the concept of soul mates, their relationship breaking up, and I have anything in common, Iggy?" Victoria asked incredulously.

"Well, you remember that vibe I talk about having. . ."

She rolled her eyes, "I told you, Eli doesn't believe in soul mates, so it doesn't make any sense. I'm sure their break up was a mixture of a lack of communication and diverging interests. Now, come on, we need to get ready for when they get here and help us out."

"Fine, fine." Iggy muttered as he walked over to the table and started putting the printed out emails into piles.

After a while Eli showed up, all nervous smiles and asking if Rory had arrived yet, switching the subject when he got the answer. Something like ten minutes later Rory walked in, with some Chinese take-out food since it was about lunch time. She avoided eye contact with Eli, but that was to be expected.

Everyone grabbed paper plates and started eating, and soon enough, Rory asked, "So, what are we helping with again?"

"Sorting replies to emails we sent out in regards to the video project I'm doing with the university." Victoria explained.

"Ah." Taking a sip from her soda, Rory added, "What's the subject?"

Victoria sighed, "Soul mates. I know, there is already a heavy saturation of research on the subject, but the backers were insistent -- "

"Seriously!?" Rory interrupted.

". . .yes?"

She snorted, "You should ask Eli about that one."

Eli practically choked on his drink, before shooting her a look which Victoria caught.

"What do you mean? Eli doesn't believe in that, so why would he be an expert?"

"Yeah, not so much. He believes in it."

"Rory!" Eli exclaimed.

"In fact, he's pretty convinced that you're his soul mate.

He buried his face in his hands, "Oh my god."

"I knew it!" Iggy exclaimed, earning himself odd looks from all three other people in the room, "I mean, come on, wasn't it obvious?"

"No!" Victoria said, turning to Eli, "Come on, we've talked about this, you know all the reasons why this whole soul mate concept isn't scientifically sound. Why would you believe it?"

"You know, " Iggy suddenly interjected, "According to reports, people who are soul mates have some sort of mental connection and feel each other's feelings and stuff. Maybe we could test that on you two?"

"Sounds good to me." Rory replied, turning and punching Eli in the arm.

"Ow!" Eli rubbed his arm, "C'mon, Rory, that's unnecessary."

Before she could reply, Victoria sighed, "Come on, guys, let's just finish our lunch and get to work on sorting these emails."

"Um. Victoria?" Iggy said.

"What?"

"You're rubbing your arm."

She paused for a moment, and then realized that she was, indeed, rubbing her arm. "And?"

"Your right arm. Rory punched Eli's right arm."

He trailed off, and it didn't take much time for Victoria to realize what he was implying, "It -- it's a coincidence. It doesn't mean anything."

"Look, Victoria. I saw it, Rory saw it, Eli saw it -- "

"Actually, I was looking at my arm and missed it" Eli admitted.

"Okay, but two out of three witnesses. I think this might be worth looking into."

"This is ridiculous." She grumbled, "Neither of us even believe in soul mates -- "

"Eli does."

"Fine, I don't believe in soul mates. I can't be one of the pair we choose to test, that's ridiculous."

"You don't have to be!" Iggy replied, "I just think that running a few of the tests that we talked about doing with the pair we got with might be a good idea."

"No, Iggy."

"Look, I can get Rory to punch him in the arm again -- right, Rory?"

"Anything for science!" Rory replied, grinning a little.

"Please don't." Eli said, a concerned look on his face.

"No -- ugh." Victoria covered her face with her hands, "Fine. We can do a few of the tests. You don't have to punch Eli again."


	6. Chapter 6

The emails had been forgotten in favor of doing the couple of tests that Victoria had agreed to, and, well, Eli was mostly trying not to feel too uncomfortable about the whole situation.

After all, it wasn't like they were going to prove or disprove anything right there and then. It was just a few tests, and considering how against the whole thing Victoria was, she would probably find a way to explain it all scientifically, and then everything would go back to the way it was.

Or, well, as much as it could, now that she knew that he still believed in soul mates.

Iggy had sent a text to Robert to bring his video equipment, since they hadn't exactly brought any for just sorting emails, and after waiting in what a fairly uncomfortable awkward silence, he arrived. After a bit of explaining ("Wait, so Victoria has a soul mate?" "Seems like she could." "Iggy!") Robert set up the equipment.

"All right." Iggy said, "The first test we're gonna do is to see if you two can, like, sense each other's thoughts, in a way."

Victoria crossed her arms, "I'd think if we were able to do that, I would have noticed at some point."

"Or, maybe you did and you let your own biases color your reasoning." Before she could argue, he continued, "Anyways. Eli, I need you to start thinking about something, and just. . .focus on it a lot."

"What should I think about?" Eli asked.

"I'm not gonna tell you -- Victoria would know, then, and we need her to guess what you're thinking."

"Oh. Okay." Eli paused for a moment, trying to think about what he should think about, before he shook his head and just picked the first thing that came to mind, even though it was completely ridiculous.

"Now, Victoria." Iggy turned to Victoria, "What is Eli, uh, thinking?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, Victoria. You have to try. Just. . .focus on trying to contact his mind or whatever. Say the first thing that comes to mind."

For a moment, it looked like Victoria was going to protest, but then she just sighed, and was quiet for a while, before saying, deadpan, "This is incredibly stupid."

"Victoria."

Despite the circumstances, Eli couldn't help but to laugh a little, earning him a glare from both Iggy and Rory and, oddly enough, Robert, who had gotten pretty invested in the whole thing in the past half and hour since it was decided that they'd run a few tests.

He forced himself to focus on what he was thinking about, repeating it in his head and --

"Duck feet." Victoria said, suddenly.

Everyone else shot her confused looks, but before they could ask what she meant by that, Eli immediately exclaimed, "Oh my god -- that's what I was thinking! I was picturing duck feet!"

Iggy's eyes widened, "Holy -- "

"It doesn't mean anything!" Victoria interrupted, "Eli and I have known each other for most of our lives, so it makes sense that we'd be able to guess that sort of thing."

". . .are duck feet particularly meaningful to your friendship?" Rory asked, raising an eyebrow.

". . .no." Victoria admitted.


	7. Chapter 7

This was very quickly getting out of hand, and Victoria was not very happy with that fact. When she'd begrudgingly agreed to try the tests that they had theorized possibly trying on the volunteers, and even when Robert arrived to set up video cameras, she was certain that they'd go through one test, realize how ridiculous this was, and then stop.

Of course, then she just so happened to guess what Eli was thinking, and the whole room went from amused by the whole situation to hesitantly open to the idea that they just might have stumbled onto something legitimate.

They were wrong, of course, but what kind of scientist would she be if she insisted on stopping a set of experiments based on personal biases? Especially when the experiments weren't even in any sort of official capacity.

"So, the next test we have planned is kinda vague." Iggy said, looking over the short list she'd written up a few days before, "It's, like, we ask a question about something that one of you knows a lot about and then the other tries to answer it? By mentally connecting with the other person, that is." Looking up, he asked, "What's something that Eli doesn't know about?"

Eli winced, and for a moment it seemed like Rory was going to say something, but then she shook her head, "Low hanging fruit."

"Pi out to a hundred digits." Victoria said.

"All right. That works." Iggy paused, "We need someone to get a list of that, though -- "

"I have my smart phone, I can get a list." Robert offered.

"Perfect. Okay." Turning to Victoria, Iggy said, "Now just start thinking about the digits of Pi." Then he turned to Eli, "And you just start, uh, listing them."

Eli nodded, and for a moment there was silence as Victoria thought through the first hundred digits of Pi. This was going to be the thing that finally put a rest to this. Sure, it was odd that she somehow guessed duck feet, but it wasn't improbably. Eli, on the other hand, had never been particularly talented when it came to math, so there was no chance that he would randomly get this.

"So, uh. . ." He suddenly said, "I'm supposed to be listing. . .types of pie, right?"

There was a pause, and then Rory started laughing, soon followed by Robert.

"No, uh. It's a math thing. It's. . .numbers. A list of one hundred numbers." Iggy explained, trying not to laugh.

"It's fine, Eli." Victoria assured him, "It just means that we didn't pass this test -- "

"No." Eli interrupted, "I didn't know what I was supposed to be listing, Vic. Just. . .start thinking about it again, and I'll try for real this time."

She considered protesting, but then just nodded and started running through the digits in her mind.

And, the moment she did, Eli, who had his eyes shut and a very focused look on his face, started talking, "3.141592653 -- "

Victoria turned at that, staring at him in shock. She was faintly aware of Iggy asking Robert if he got that on video, and Robert saying that he did, and she just stared at Eli, who opened his eyes, and stared back. She'd known Eli for long enough that she knew for a fact that there was no way he could know that many digits of Pi on his own.

Maybe --

She looked away, then, shaking her head. That was ridiculous. Eli had always been a lot smarter than most people assumed he was -- most people saw his difficulty with math and science and were surprised when they saw his good people skills in action. Maybe he looked it up on a whim, or maybe the focus on the concept of Pi caused him to remember when he was taught the concept in high school. It was the only thing that made sense.

(And, no, she didn't 'sense' disappointment from Eli when she thought that. That would be impossible.)


	8. Chapter 8

If Eli had some level of doubts before, they were pretty much completely gone now. He didn't know what they really meant by Pi, much less whether or not he'd been taught it in school and had since forgotten, and yet the moment he paused and focused after he asked to try again, the numbers came to him with an ease that seemed familiar.

He'd never been particularly good at math, which led to Victoria helping him throughout the years, but while he would do much better when she helped he, he would find himself just as blank and confused when he actually tried to do the work in class. Back then, he'd chalked it up to a mixture not being a good test-taker, and just not being good at math in general. Suddenly the whole thing made a lot more sense.

And then there was a moment where he could both see it on Victoria's face and feel it -- she almost bought it. She almost allowed herself to think that maybe there was something to it, and he could've sworn his heart skipped a beat or something.

Of course, the next moment she shook her head, discounting the whole thing. He tried not to feel disappointed about it (after all, what did he expect to happen?) but it couldn't be helped.

They went through the rest of the tests, and they all seemed to come out positive as far as Eli could tell. After all, they managed to accomplish the tasks that were set out for them to do, despite how impossible they seemed. But Victoria always had some sort of explanation, something that explained it away, so he could be wrong. Iggy thanked Robert for coming and helping out at such short notice.

"Hey, it's no problem." Robert replied, as he started packing his video camera equipment (Eli had offered to help, but Robert had insisted that he was fine, and he was a little hurt until he remembered how the last time he'd tried to help out in the lab he'd kind of broken something that was supposedly unbreakable, and he understood.), "Besides, how can I not help Victoria with her soul mate." He paused, then added with mock serious, "Love is the most important thing, after all."

Both Rory and Victoria rolled their eyes at the statement, (It was practically in unison and Eli was a little scared by it, not gonna lie.) and then Rory said that she was going to go, since she had plans for tomorrow and couldn't stay out to late. For a moment, he thought she was going to say something to him, but then she just left.

Robert bowed out soon after he finished packing all his stuff ("Let me know if you need a wedding planner, Victoria, the lady who did my sister's wedding was great and not that expensive." Victoria hadn't even bothered replying to that one.) and then headed out.

Iggy followed soon after, obviously leaving Eli and Victoria time to talk. He'd tried to make that fact subtle, but then he'd attempted a joke in the form of saying 'I'll leave you two lovebirds alone' and when all he got in return was stares, he apologized and left.

Eli knew that they had to talk about everything at some point, and he could Victoria did, too. Normally, she'd be the one to dive into the topic, no matter how uncomfortable it was. But he could tell that after all the tests, after the moment where she started to think 'what if', she was more hesitant to open the conversation than she normally would be.

And, so, he decided to start the conversation for her, no matter how awkward he felt, "So, uh, should I start explaining first, or. . .?"


	9. Chapter 9

Eli's prompting was enough to get her out of the momentary awkwardness and uncertainty that kept her from asking the obvious question, "How long have you believed it?"

He played with his sleeve for a little bit, "Um. A while." He paused just long enough that she thought she was going to have to ask the question again, but then continued, "I mean, I don't know exactly when I realized it, but I think I sort of. . .always knew?"

"That's probably just Hindsight Bias in effect, Eli."

Sighing, he shrugged, "I mean, I guess. . ." For a moment, he trailed off, "Okay, I, uh. Actually don't know what that means."

If anyone else in the world had said that, she'd have rolled her eyes and explained the concept to them, probably in a condescending tone. But it wasn't anyone else in the world, it was Eli, so instead she laughed, and a bit of the tension which she had felt since he admitted that he actually believed in soul mates dispelled. Regardless of this, he was still her oldest friend.

"It's when something seems more obvious than it actually was in retrospect." She paused for a moment, noting the look of continued confusion on his face, and continued, "Um. When the killer in an episode of the crime show you like seems really obvious at the end."

"Oh!" He replied, "Now I get it." There was a slight pause, "I don't think it's that, though. I mean. . .we've always had a connection, right?"

Victoria wrinkled her nose at that, "I guess? I mean, we've been friends since. . .I don't even remember how long, so it only makes sense that we would know each other that well."

He nodded, "True. I just. . .I don't know. Sometimes it's seemed like we can almost read each other's minds, or something."

She raised an eyebrow, "Eli? I think you're remembering that one time I tricked you into thinking I could read your mind for April Fool's Day."

"No I'm n -- " He paused, "Wait. I might be." He paused again, "No, wait, there were other times! Like when I guessed that crazy number you were thinking that one time!"

"It wasn't that crazy. You just underestimate yourself when it comes to numbers. And math in general."

"I don't think it's underestimating, Vic, I nearly got held back because of math."

She smiled, and there was another pause in the conversation. 

He coughed, "Are we, uh. Are we gonna be okay?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't we be? You just think we're soul mates and it's the reason you're not dating Rory anymore. It's not like someone died or something."

". . .good point." He smiled a little, "I mean, a zombie outbreak could have happened."

"A zombie outbreak couldn't happen." Victoria corrected, "There's no scientific sense to zombies."

". . .not sure whether I should be disappointed or relieved."

"Anyways, it's not like anything's going to come from this. I'm sure there will be perfectly understandable explanations for everything, and then we can go back to finding the test subjects for the video series."

"If you need any help with that, I can help!"

She considered it for a moment before smiling, "That would be great, Eli."


End file.
